Let’s start with an confession; I’m not the most technologically gifted. When I started my Qwiklabs tutorial on Google Cloud Platform’s essential tools and services, I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the Cloud has to offer.

But there was no reason to worry. The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Essentials quest requires no prerequisites or background knowledge in the field of cloud computation. (There’s a pop-up that asks for a code when you click the link – guess you’ll have to read to the end of the article to get it!) Everyone starts somewhere, and Qwiklabs is excited to help you take that first step. This series of hands-on labs offered in this beginner’s course are accessible, easy to navigate, and pretty fun to complete – no matter how novice a learner might be, you can finish the GCP Essentials quest and earn your first Google Cloud badge in one day!

First, an introduction to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Users are given plenty of time to learn the ins and outs of operating the platform’s console. A Tour of Qwiklabs and the Google Cloud Platform includes an introduction of basic features like Admin, Project Info, and Billing. It’s a stylish homebase for all your GCP learning. The heft of the learning is done in the Cloud Shell, which lets users work out any coding they’re learning in an easy-to-use (and easy to correct!) application.

Cloud Shell is a major help in learning how to Create a Virtual Machine. This lab lets you run a plethora of different operating systems (five different types of Linux alone!) as you create and deploy web servers. Grow confident in connecting your cloud with other external resources online, and stake a claim on their own corner of the internet with the Google Cloud Marketplace, which teaches our learners to build operating systems and databases of their own.

Need to review monitor how your virtual machine is running? Use Stackdriver! Google’s own CMS service makes it easy to sign up and view the performance of your work, as well as run diagnostics on anything that doesn’t seem quite right.

This is Holly. She is a good dog, and according to the Cloud Vision API, she is a beagle. Test your pet’s background with a lab – cheaper than a DNA kit – with the new Exploring APIs quest. Enroll now and use code 1q-api-685 for 25 free Qwiklabs credits to start your quest. Hurry, code expires February 10, 2019.

APIs allow you to access Google Cloud features and data from your own application. The labs in this quest will equip you to build complex scenarios to take advantage of GCP’s powerful compute tools. The APIs Explorer gives you a quick and easy way to create complex API calls, even if you don’t consider yourself an API expert. Here’s some of what you’ll do in the quest:

APIs Explorer: Qwik Start – You can use your pet’s photo in place of the provided image. Just make sure to change the name of the file (including the file extension) to demo-image.jpg. Floofs aside, imagine how this technology might be used in a retail warehouse to help packing robots find the product you ordered.

APIs Explorer: Compute Engine – Learn how to create a Compute Engine instance with Explorer, then monitor CPU usage with StackDriver. This Cloud Engineer role outside of Boston, paying up to $180k, is looking for someone who can help “configure (through automation) infrastructure and applications for high performance and highly available operation to meet business needs.” There’s an opportunity to use what you know about APIs to make a real business impact.

Spend some time thinking about your idea and formulate a plan of action. Is your idea impactful? Feasible? Scalable?

Apply for Google.org’s AI for Good grant.

Google.org is still looking for for organizations around the world to submit ideas for solving societal problems with AI. If your idea is selected, you will receive Google.org grant funding from a $25M pool, support and consulting with Google’s AI and cloud experts, and more resources to help your idea become a reality. The deadline to apply is January 22.

Big data is one of the top growing career fields in tech right now (according to Dice, Forbes and others). Learning how to work with data in the cloud is easier than you think.

Challenge yourself! Start 2019 with a new Google Cloud badge. Set yourself a goal to complete the Data Engineering quest in 30 days. Use code 1q-30days-806 to get a free 30-day pass to Qwiklabs, and begin your challenge. EXTENDED to January 11 – enroll by Friday to get your free pass (:

Predict Taxi Fare with a BigQuery ML Forecasting Model – Taxi! Explore millions of New York City yellow taxi cab trips available in a BigQuery Public Dataset, create a ML model inside of BigQuery to predict the fare, and evaluate the performance of your model to make predictions.

Complete the quest and automatically receive another 30-days free – what quest will you take next? And don’t forget to add your new Google Cloud badge to your resume:

Flare leg jeans, Princess Leia headphones and dad sneakers are all back in style and improving with age (OK the headphones at least sound better). Know what else has improved since its invention in the 70s? SQL.

Whether you’re digging deep into Big Query on a daily basis or you’re peripherally aware that your company relies on a SQL database (it probably does), SQL is better than ever in 2018 when you pair it with the power of GCP’s infrastructure. Set yourself apart among your peers by enrolling in the new Cloud SQL quest and learn how your company can take advantage of Cloud SQL’s simplicity, reliability and security.

New from Qwiklabs, save money and make your expense reports easy with an annual subscription. Get 1 year of unlimited access to the entire Qwiklabs catalog for one price. New labs are added daily – get in now and take advantage of all the new training we’ll publish in the next 12 months for no extra charge. Even better, an annual description gets you a 25% discount compared to a monthly subscription.

Annual subscription FAQs

Q: What do I do if I currently have a monthly subscription, but I want to save money and purchase an annual subscription?A: Upgrade! Go to the Qwiklabs My Account page and you will see an option to upgrade your monthly subscription to annual. Any balance you have left on your current subscription will be pro-rated to your annual subscription.

Q: Do annual subscriptions auto-renew?
A: Yes, but you can cancel anytime. When you cancel, you can enjoy the remaining time left on your subscription, and you will not be charged again.

Q: I want to purchase one year only, without worrying about an auto-renewal.
A: No problem! Purchase an annual subscription, then immediately cancel it. Your subscription will remain active for a year and will not auto-renew.

Q: Does the subscription include Google labs and AWS labs?A: Yes, both Google and AWS labs.

Q: What if I purchased credits? Can I transfer them to a subscription?A: No, unfortunately you cannot do this.

Q: Can I share my subscription?A: No, one subscription should be used by one individual.

Q: How many badges can I earn with an annual subscription?A: Earn as many as you like – there is no limit.

Q: I have a question that is not answered here. Help!A: Please reach out to Support and we’ll be happy to assist you.

What’s so special about Qwiklabs.com? It might be the only site you visit today that does not require your credit card. Just released, 10 free labs are available now in the GCP catalog. The new skills you learn will not break, go out of style or require batteries. Instead of online shopping, start your next career move free of charge and learn how to:

SQL was developed in the 1970s but don’t think it’s too old to learn new tricks. SQL remains themost in-demand skill for data analysts, and it’s getting more powerful by the day with the help of cloud technology.

Cloud SQL hosted on GCP, offers high performance, vertical scalability and convenience. Why not see for yourself? Just released, enroll in the new Cloud SQL quest by Tuesday, November 30th and you’ll get a 1-month pass to Qwiklabs to get practice Cloud SQL on GCP (free of charge, no CC required). Here are some of the labs that you’ll take to earn your Cloud SQL badge:

This lab uses code samples from the Data Science on GCP book and covers configuration of Google Cloud SQL. You’ll prepare your environment by cloning the code samples on GCP repository and then create a Cloud SQL instance. After importing flight data from CSV into Cloud SQL, you’ll write queries to build a data model:

Take the quiz to reinforce your understanding:

2. You still haven’t built a website for your cousin, and the holidays are just around the corner? There’s a lab for that! Learn how to build a website qwikly and cheaply with the App Engine and WordPress lab.

You’ll create a Console project with Cloud SQL instance and storage bucket, and configure them to sync with your WordPress blog. Then set up a dependency management tool for PHP, Composer:

Is your Composer output similar to the one from the lab? Share your results @Qwiklabs.

Tip: Having trouble with step 3 of creating your WordPress project? You’ll need to enter the credentials from connection details. Find them on the left side of your lab manual:

Last, you’ll activate Cloud Storage plugin to deploy and configure your project. This plugin lets you upload media files to the Cloud Storage bucket and serve them from there. Be sure to test your knowledge and show off your results@Qwiklabs:

3. Want to learn how to develop applications with mobile responsive design but don’t have the time? There’s a lab for that! Build Apps with Google App Maker in a fraction of time with little (or even no) coding experience.

When you’re done, your app will have a Cloud SQL database to set up business data models, maps integration to locate your business and mobile responsive design. It’ll look like this:

Got an idea so crazy it just might work? Google’s AI for good team wants to hear it. Just announced, Google.org is calling for organizations around the world to submit ideas for solving societal problems with AI. If your idea is selected, you will receive Google.org grant funding from a $25M pool, support and consulting with Google’s AI and cloud experts, and more resources to help your idea become a reality.

Not sure where to start? There’s a lab for that. Learn about AI, machine learning and GCP tools, and how they come together in real-world scenarios. Then apply what you learn to approach societal problems you are passionate about. For a limited time through November 24, use the links in this post to claim 45 free Qwiklabs credits, good towards any lab in the catalog. Just enter promo code 1q-165 – it sounds crazy, but it just might work!

The Cloud ML Engine: Qwik Start lab is an excellent starting point if you’re new to GCP. This lab assumes little to know prior knowledge, and by the end of the lab you have built a TensorFlow model, trained it both locally and in the cloud using Cloud ML Engine (CMLE), and used GCP’s online prediction service.

Translate Text with the Translation API: Can you think of how smooth, seamless translation might be part of your solution? Learn how to take advantage of Google Cloud’s translation API in just 30 minutes. Talk nerdy to me!

Integrating Machine Learning APIs: Now that you have API experience, learn how to use multiple APIs to construct a pipeline that compares an audio recording with an image and determines their relevance to each other. This is an advanced level lab, so if you find yourself in trouble, check out this intro to APIs lab.